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Sunday, August 9, 2015

Montana Book Roundup: Summer 2015

In case you haven't seen my Montana Book Roundup posts before, basically it's a book haul that happens whenever I take a trip back to my native soil, where cheap books must grow on trees. It should be noted Montana has the most bookstores per capita of any of the States, which is evident whenever you venture into one of the thrift stores there. Hence, the Montana Book Roundup post was born.

This time, I found quite a few books that I simply couldn't pass over. Either they were too cheap, too interesting, or I lusted for their covers.

This time, I found a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy books to fill my overloaded shelves, including a Young Adult title that was simply too cheap to pass up:

Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore
Price: $1.79
I've heard great things about this book, as well as awful things about this book. One of my offline friends likes this one a lot, but probably has different taste than me as far as books go. We'll see how I like it.

Looking for Jake by China Miéville
Price: $1.59
I'm hoping to dip my toes into Mr. Miéville's work through this set of short stories. I've heard good things about his writing, but have not read him myself yet.

The Mageborn Traitor (Exiles #2) by Melanie Rawn
Price: $1.29
I have the first book of this series and decided to collect the second, even though the third is MIA, and this was published in 1997 (so fans of this series have more to complain about than Kingkiller Chronicle and ASoIaF fans). Still, I like the idea of a female-led society in fantasy, so it must be worth the (almost twenty year) wait for the third book to come around.

Sorcery Rising (Fool's Gold #1) by Jude Fisher
Price: $1.49
The Goodreads cover for this one is more interesting, but I always will pick up the first book of a fantasy series, if it's cheap. This one was cheap, and by a female author. I'm a bit prejudiced.

Stronghold (Dragon Star #1) by Melanie Rawn
Price: $1.29
As someone appeared to be purging all of their Melanie Rawn mass market paperbacks, I picked up another of her series starters, even though I already have three of her other books (and have yet to read them). I'm a bit of a dragon addict, so when I saw one on the cover I was sold.

The Faded Sun Trilogy (The Faded Sun #1-3) by C.J. Cherryh
Price: (Steal of the Roundup) $1.29 for the trilogy
Described as dark sci-fi, I'm eager to dig into this trilogy. It has the appearance of having diverse characters, yet I've been fooled by cover art before.

Non Sci-Fi/Fantasy Finds:

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
Price: $1.59
I have bad luck with prize-winning literature, but I figured I'd give this a try. Soul Mountain is fiction inspired by Mr. Xingjian's travels across China to escape the Communist regime.

Sadly, there weren't a lot of historicals other than Soul Mountain that looked like anything I hadn't read before, but I did find a few contemporaries:

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson
Price: $1.29
I haven't (to my knowledge) read a book set in Sweden yet, so this should be a good one. I love stories of unusual female friendships, and this looks to be in that category as well.

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith
Price: $2.99
I pretty much never read mysteries, but I'll make an exception for J.K. Rowling. Plus, this book was in pristine shape... while most of my books look like they were lent out to toddlers. I like the shiny things, some days.